Maybe I'm Just Getting Old....

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

The sad thing about Lady Gaga is that her acoustic stuff, that you can only find online is millions of times better than the club edited shit she puts out as albums. If she would just act like a serious musician and not someone who is trying to sell records, she would be a lot more respectable. I still wouldn't love her or anything, but I wouldn't wish she'd disappear either.

Give it a few years. My prediction is that she is going to cash in as much as possible while her shtick is still popular, start her own record label, and release real music under her real name. As I understand it, she is classically trained and has a very good voice. We'll get to find out if that is true when she has enough money to release her own stuff and not care if it sells.

I don't have a lot of respect for her current style of "art", but I have loads of respect for her marketing ability.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Maybe I'm different but I see music as entertainment and tend to prefer the stuff played on the radio because it's entertaining. When I hear independent, I quickly think that it sucks.

*This doesnt mean I like all music on the radio

Entertainment is different things to different people. I tend to be entertained by things that aren't as entertaining to the masses.

That doesn't mean the masses are wrong, as much as I'd like to think it does.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Maybe I'm different but I see music as entertainment and tend to prefer the stuff played on the radio because it's entertaining. When I hear independent, I quickly think that it sucks.

*This doesnt mean I like all music on the radio

This will probably sound strange, but I don't listen to music for entertainment. I mean, I am entertained by the music I like, but when I think of being entertained, I think of being in a good mood, partying, etc., and most of my favorite music is way too dark/depressing to be "entertaining" in that sense. Or, even the stuff that's more upbeat, I like it because of the song structure, harmonies, instrumentation, riffs, etc. That's just the way I approach listening to music. I can't really even listen to music I like as background - when I'm in the car and my wife wants to talk to me, I stop the music so I can pick back up where it left off.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

This will probably sound strange, but I don't listen to music for entertainment. I mean, I am entertained by the music I like, but when I think of being entertained, I think of being in a good mood, partying, etc., and most of my favorite music is way too dark/depressing to be "entertaining" in that sense. Or, even the stuff that's more upbeat, I like it because of the song structure, harmonies, instrumentation, riffs, etc. That's just the way I approach listening to music. I can't really even listen to music I like as background - when I'm in the car and my wife wants to talk to me, I stop the music so I can pick back up where it left off.

FWIW, I don't see a problem with how you utilize music/the role it plays for you. I'd suggest however that perhaps your definition of the word "entertainment" might be in need of revision.

Your approach to listening to music does "entertain" you, I think, it's just working on a different portion of your brain/filling different psychological and/or emotional needs, etc than what the more limited (and perhaps traditional) definition of "entertainment" you described covers.

A weird analogy might be how a lot of FOFC'ers are "entertained" by "playing a game" when we aren't actually playing the game itself but rather doing some portion of the grognard'ish stuff we do that's a tangent to the game itself.

[Lathum]

Get off my lawn!

[Subby]

Music is so completely personal, I wonder why people try and expend any effort at all trying to tell other people their feeling about it.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

My wife won't allow it. I'll sneak XMLM on for a few minutes in the car, but otherwise, I get shut out. The only good thing is my wife's still stuck in the 80s, so they listen to a ton of Journey, Bon Jovi, and Aerosmith (recently, Tyler made his band MILLIONS by joining AI this year), which I can do without these days, but I'd rather listen to them than contemporary pop.

My kids mainly think my musical tastes are weird, aside from 1 or 2 artists they like. But that's to be expected, I guess, when you basically only listen to metal and Beatles-inspired pop/rock.

My wifes rock tastes are stuck in the 80's too, but she does bend over backwards to let me listen to pretty much anything I want...But she does put her foot down on me listening to Las Ketchup and Los del Mar for more than 20 minutes at a time..lol

The cd's in our car run the gamut from Mercyful Fate to Mozart to Charlie Hall...yes, we have a very mixed up collection of cd's. It gets hilarious when some of Mrs Lurkers Christian friends come over and bump into my Venom Vinyl and when they see the rugrat rockin to ICP,Maiden, Motorhead, Sugarland and Charlie Hall....Gets a bit "interesting"

[frnk55]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

The cd's in our car run the gamut from Mercyful Fate to Mozart to Charlie Hall...yes, we have a very mixed up collection of cd's. It gets hilarious when some of Mrs Lurkers Christian friends come over and bump into my Venom Vinyl and when they see the rugrat rockin to ICP,Maiden, Motorhead, Sugarland and Charlie Hall....Gets a bit "interesting"

Mercyful Fate. Ha, thats funny. I was a die hard metal fan in the 80's but just could not get into their music.
Today I never listen to today's music. I'm stuck in the late 60's to 70's. And 80's for hard rock. Yup, I'm old.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by frnk55

Mercyful Fate. Ha, thats funny. I was a die hard metal fan in the 80's but just could not get into their music.
Today I never listen to today's music. I'm stuck in the late 60's to 70's. And 80's for hard rock. Yup, I'm old.

I actually like some of the modern metal/rock out there so I can't say i'm stuck in the 60's-80's rut. It helps that I have such fucked up music tastes that I can rock to some turbopolka one minute and some metalcore the next then throw some modern jazz in right after.....

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

It gets hilarious when some of Mrs Lurkers Christian friends come over and bump into my Venom Vinyl and when they see the rugrat rockin to ICP,Maiden, Motorhead, Sugarland and Charlie Hall....Gets a bit "interesting"

Just so long as they aren't around when the Steel Panther is playing ...

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just so long as they aren't around when the Steel Panther is playing ...

LoL..yeah they are raunchy but her friends have run the Motley Crue gauntlet to the living room so they are partially immune to glam these days

[JonInMiddleGA]

Back to the impetus for this thread for a moment

’2011 Video Music Awards’ Draws 12.4 Million Viewers, Biggest Audience In MTV History - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers

The 2011 Video Music Awards scored MTV's biggest audience in the network's history with a record-breaking 12.4 million total viewers. Among the network's target P12-34 audience, the VMAS delivered a 10.8 rating and 8.5 million P12-34 viewers, making it MTV’s most-watched telecast of all time in the demo.

It'll probably be another day or so before the rest of the ratings data trickles onto sites like TVBTN but I'm gonna guess that a big chunk of the remainder (outside of 12-34) is going to be adults rather than <12. If that's the case, it would probably land them a rating of somewhere between 4.0 & 8.0 with A18-49.

By depressing comparison, last Sunday's (i.e. 8 days ago) Breaking Bad did a 0.7 rating in A18-49.

[thesloppy]

A small piece of my manifesto: I think the internet age has created a stagnant cultural loop. The opening up of a massive world of information means the current generation of folks creating music and culture have grown up immersed in the culture of the past and the present. There is so much information and culture from the past (and the present) to be devoured, so much art, history and commentary thereof, so far beyond what any generation before has had access to....I think at first blush, you might think that would result in an explosion of new creativity, and in some areas (especially new media) it certainly has, but in a lot of the more traditional cultural outlets, it's resulted in stagnant trash. Mainstream music has sounded largely the same for the last 20-25 years, and modern movies seemingly only consist of double-digit sequels and features based on comic books.

My half-baked theory revolves around the thought that the initial information generation has become more observational than experimental, and as a result culture has become a lot more self-referential and self-conscious. Although folks the world over now suddenly have access to a global pool of music, art and culture they never have, the most popular and time-proven stuff is still going to attract the most attention....so basically now everyone the world over is drawing from largely the same pool of ancient/modern influences, and as a result the culture they produce comes out looking/sounding a lot more homogeneous than that of the disconnected past, when lots of folks were driven to make their own entertainment. Looking at how music evolves even through modern history, you can see drastic changes through the decades as tastes, influences, and expectations wildly changed through the years. On the other hand, the evolution of music and movies seemed to come to nearly a complete stop, practically the second the internet entered the scene (TV for whatever reason, seems to keep evolving, for better or worse).

Likewise, the information age has made culture much more self-conscious, as various flavors of opinion and criticism have become a much larger and seamlessly intertwined component of modern culture. The internet has made everyone a critic, and criticism for the artist is everywhere, and extends far past whatever art you're producing, and as far into one's fashion/psyche/financial/family/personal concerns as it can possibly worm. I think the cultural result of such rampant criticism is three-fold: A) It encourages the artist to put out warmed over crap that fits within whatever the cultural expectations of the minute may be. B) It encourages the artist to spend AT LEAST as much time crafting/securing their image/brand as creating any actual art. C) Criticism has become it's own cultural outlet, and has likely leached away many creative minds that decided to share their own opinions and criticism rather than produce their own art. American Idol, Someone May/May Not Have Talent, and other reality shows have enforced the idea that you don't really need to be creative, or work at your craft, when you can get just as famous for showing up at a cattle call, wearing your skimpiest outfit, and singing oldies with as much vibrato as possible.

All of those factors together have led to (at least mainstream) culture putting out stagnant, repetitive, self-referential crap, with very little inventiveness and only incremental border-pushing. That said, I think culture moves in waves, and once we break out of the loop, we're probably in store for a major shift, once people start shining the lights looking for new things, rather than looking for the best of the past and the now. Perhaps the current dearth is the result of the ancient cultural industries of the past going through their death throes as we pass into a new era. Perhaps the same sort of cultural hiccups occurred with the introduction of other cultural game-changers, like TV and radio.

.....or maybe I'm just getting old.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

A small piece of my manifesto: I think the internet age has created a stagnant cultural loop. The opening up of a massive world of information means the current generation of folks creating music and culture have grown up immersed in the culture of the past and the present. There is so much information and culture from the past (and the present) to be devoured, so much art, history and commentary thereof, so far beyond what any generation before has had access to....I think at first blush, you might think that would result in an explosion of new creativity, and in some areas (especially new media) it certainly has, but in a lot of the more traditional cultural outlets, it's resulted in stagnant trash. Mainstream music has sounded largely the same for the last 20-25 years, and modern ovies seemingly only consist of double-digit sequels and features based on comic books.

My half-baked theory revolves around the thought that the initial information generation has become more observational than experimental, and as a result culture has become a lot more self-referential and self-conscious. Although folks the world over now suddenly have access to a global pool of music, art and culture they never have, the most popular and time-proven stuff is still going to attract the most attention....so basically now everyone the world over is drawing from largely the same pool of ancient/modern influences, and as a result the culture they produce comes out looking/sounding a lot more homogeneous than that of the disconnected past, when lots of folks were driven to make their own entertainment. Looking at how music evolves even through modern history, you can see drastic changes through the decades as tastes, influences, and expectations wildly changed through the years. On the other hand, the evolution of music and movies seemed to come to nearly a complete stop, practically the second the internet entered the scene (TV for whatever reason, seems to keep evolving, for better or worse).

Likewise, the information age has made culture much more self-conscious, as opinion and criticism have become a much bigger and more important component of modern culture. The internet has made everyone a critic, and criticism for the artist is everywhere, and extends far past whatever art you're producing, and as far into one's fashion/psyche/financial/family/personal concerns as it can possibly worm. I think the cultural result of such rampant criticism is three-fold: A) It encourages the artist to put out warmed over crap that fits within whatever the cultural expectations of the minute may be. B) It encourages the artist to spend AT LEAST as much time crafting/securing their image/brand as creating any actual art. C) Criticism has become it's own cultural outlet, and has likely leached away many creative minds that decided to share their own opinions and criticism rather than produce their own art. American Idol, Someone May/May Not Have Talent, and other reality shows have enforced the idea that you don't really need to be creative, or work at your craft, when you can get just as famous for showing up at a cattle call, wearing your skimpiest outfit, and singing oldies with as much vibrato as possible.

All of those factors together have led to (at least mainstream) culture putting out stagnant, repetitive, self-referential crap, with very little inventiveness and only incremental border-pushing. That said, I think culture moves in waves, and once we break out of the loop, we're probably in store for a major shift, once people start shining the lights looking for new things, rather than looking for the best of the past and the now. Perhaps the current dearth is the result of the ancient cultural industries of the past going through their death throes as we pass into a new era...

.....or maybe I'm just getting old.

I've had a lot of similar thoughts, but one of the conclusions I drew is that you end up with huge fragmentation. People can pick and choose what they want so much more than in the past. Also, "knowledge" can come from so many angles.

It must be impossible to do humor now as it is strongly rooted in shared experiences. It makes me think of Krusty's monologue about time tested jokes about doctor bills and women drivers. When there was a smaller body of knowledge to draw from, it's easier to have common backgrounds. It's easy to make a joke about a tv show when there were only 4 channels so you were watching one of four things. It's a bit harder when there are 200.

SI

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

It must be impossible to do humor now as it is strongly rooted in shared experiences. It makes me think of Krusty's monologue about time tested jokes about doctor bills and women drivers. When there was a smaller body of knowledge to draw from, it's easier to have common backgrounds. It's easy to make a joke about a tv show when there were only 4 channels so you were watching one of four things. It's a bit harder when there are 200.

SI

For sure. On the other hand, I think a lot of the new variety is smoke and mirrors, and the "back-end" is a lot more consistent than we may realize. Track those 200 channels to their roots, and 195 probably lead back to the same 4 corporations, airing the same 100 commercials. 95% of us are likely having the same internet pushed to us by the main service players, Google, Youtube, Facebook, etc. The 80 million local and national news sites are all re-wording the same AP brief to fit their own agenda. I can choose whether to watch the latest hot internet videos, actually on the internet, or via Comedy Central's Tosh.0, G4TV's Web Soup, or MTV's Ridiculousnes. Would you rather watch a midget baker who rescues pit-bulls and hunts ghosts in his spare time, or a pit-bull ghost who bakes midgets in his spare time, the choice is yours!

[BYU 14]

After watching the few moments of the VMA's I could stand last night, maybe this wasn't that bad afterall!

[thesloppy]

I'll tell you what I really don't get: dubstep. That shit brings out the true old man criticisms from me. "What is this? You call this music? It's just noise! You actually listen to this?" I can feel myself getting older when I hear dubstep....I get a hankering for hard candy, and sock garters.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Subby

Music is so completely personal, I wonder why people try and expend any effort at all trying to tell other people their feeling about it.

I understand that, but I just don't understand how anyone can watch that video in the first post and say "this is the best music has to offer". That would be laughed out of a karaoke bar.

Sure there are different music genres that we all like and don't like. But can't we all agree by now that the autotune crap is a cover for someone who can't sing? That it takes almost no talent at all to sing into an autotune mic?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I'll tell you what I really don't get: dubstep.

Your timing is excellent. I had the misfortune of running across a dubstep (whatever the fuck that means) remix of a Halestorm song earlier this evening.

Epic. Fail.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Sure there are different music genres that we all like and don't like. But can't we all agree by now that the autotune crap is a cover for someone who can't sing? That it takes almost no talent at all to sing into an autotune mic?

The other explanation for this - that autotune is the sound they are going for - is equally unsatisfying. It sounds ridiculous. But then again, wearing your pants around your ankles has looked stupid for over a decade, and that fad/phenomenon is still going strong so...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Sunday Cable Ratings: 'True Blood' Rises, Leads Night + Kardashians, 'Entourage,' 'Leverage,' 'Breaking Bad,' & Much More - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers

With MTV's top viewership ever, the Video Music Awards had no competition for Sunday night's top cable (or broadcast) ratings, drawing a 6.2 rating for adults 18-49.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I'll tell you what I really don't get: dubstep. That shit brings out the true old man criticisms from me. "What is this? You call this music? It's just noise! You actually listen to this?" I can feel myself getting older when I hear dubstep....I get a hankering for hard candy, and sock garters.

Bah...sock garters are the shit!

[Suicane75]

My problem isn't so much with the content of the music but rather the fact that I have no idea who any of these people are. Once MTV stopped playing videos I sort of just lost touch with what's cool. Unless someone gets so huge like Perry or Gaga I'm just lost.

I do think however that pop will always be pop. I don't expect pop music to affect me in any other way than to get me tappin my feet and bobbing my head.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just when I thought the Halestorm dubstep was going to scar me forever ...

Five Finger Death Punch + DJ Kraddy = Under & Over It All (dubstep remix).

No, I'm not linking this one, you can find it yourself if you want to. Damned if I'm gonna promote an idea this fucking horrifying.